Tama, The Citadel - On the 06.01.113, forces from the Gallente Federal Defence Union [FDU] and the Caldari State Protectorate [STPRO] militias clashed in Tama in a battle that lasted over 3 hours.
Approximately 60 ships from the FDU managed to hold the field against roughly 90 STPRO vessels (over the course of the lengthy fight) by keeping mobile and fighting at long range, where the Caldari could not bring their full firepower to bear.
The Caldari militia watched for moments when the FDU were near wrecks they could use to warp into close range and used multiple fleet warps away from the Kedama gate and back again to try and land in tackling range of the Gallente fleet, but the shield-tanked nanoships fielded by the Gallente were mostly too maneuverable to be caught. According to Zeerover of Wolfsbrigade, "The final battlefield had wrecks stretching 750km from the gate in one direction and 300km in the other."
The lengthy battle meant that several pilots whose ships were destroyed could reship and return to the fight; Zeerover said that the Caldari were reluctant to give up as there were "billions in loot" still on the battlefield.
Tarvis Darwin of the STPRO heard of the battle when it had already been raging for hours. “I came in at the very end, lost a [Dominix] and dropped a [Thanatos] that I had in system... It was a fast-moving battle and the carrier had problems keeping and or getting DPS onto a target before it was... outrun."
While Tama did become contested almost a week later on the 11th, it was swiftly resecured by the Caldari State and currently remains under their control. The battle on the 6th, while it may not have directly impacted system control, saw over 60 ship deaths on the FDU side and over 170 in the State Protectorate forces, with both sides periodically engaging pirate forces as well as each other.
GalNet References
STPRO Battle Records
FDU Battle Records
(Note that the presence of possible non-militia pilots aiding either side, misfires, attacks by pirates and potentially missing records means that the numbers in these two records do not match precisely.)
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